In all honesty, Hinata had not expected her father to allow her to learn any sort of Juuken technique until she had mastered the basics to his satisfaction. While he did answer her question of whether there was a ranged attack in the Juuken repertoire, which was a yes, she simply did not expect him to agree to teaching her the Hakke Kuushou. According to him, it was the simplest of techniques in Juuken other than the basic applications of their renowned taijutsu. Despite not saying so, it was clear to Hinata he was not expecting her to get it down without any difficulty. He was right. For the first few days, Hinata could not perform the high-speed palm thrust needed to complete the technique. She had gotten everything else right on the first day. Gathering and controlling the chakra was easy enough. Forming the vacuum shell was easy enough. She just did not have the physical speed needed for the high-speed thrust in order to launch said vacuum shell that served as the technique's projectile. Without being able to shoot it, the technique was nothing more than a harder Juuken palm strike at best if performed at point-blank range. Still, she persevered for days to condition her arms for the high-speed thrust, if only for the sake of Natsumi's desperate plea for help.
***Flashback***
"Why are you asking me this, Natsumi-chan?" Hinata was very surprised when she heard Natsumi's request.
"I was useless! Sasuke almost died because of me!" Natsumi shouted in frustration at herself, making Hinata gasp in shock.
"You're not useless, Natsumi-chan. Surely you must have done something to help," she tried calming her down.
"Only at the very end. I can't remember it clearly, but I defeated Haku after I thought Sasuke was dead. It shouldn't have gotten that far at all!"
"Can you explain to me how the fight went?"
Natsumi retold the fight as best as she could after joining the fight. Hinata listened raptly, trying to determine what was the cause of Natsumi's request. By the end of the recollection, she could understand why Natsumi asked her such a thing. During the fight with Haku, Natsumi felt useless because she could not do anything to help Sasuke fend off their opponent. She had been nothing more than a distraction to buy Sasuke precious time he needed to finally adjust to Haku's movements and awaken his Sharingan. The fact that she entered the fight midway and was the first to collapse from her injuries when Sasuke was already injured prior to her joining in had added to her frustrations and reinforced her belief that she had been utterly useless during the fight because she did not have any long-range technique to help him with.
Hinata frowned sadly for her best friend. She must have felt horrible and seeing her so angry with herself depressed Hinata. Quickly replacing her concerned frown for a determined expression, she promised Natsumi that she would find a technique suitable for them to learn.
***End flashback***
In hindsight, it was a good idea Hinata decided to go along with Natsumi's request. She realized she too had a severe disadvantage against ranged opponents. Shino was already a ranged fighter himself, and Kiba was fast enough to get up close and personal to engage in close combat. In case he could not do that, he had no problems attacking from range either. Hinata had no such options. All she had, besides her Byakugan, was superior taijutsu over her two teammates according to Kurenai.
By the time Hinata was able to properly use the Hakke Kuushou, the sudden announcement that Kurenai had nominated them for the Chuunin Exam put a wrench into her plans. There was no time for her to teach Natsumi the technique before it started. Feeling a little let down she could not learn it faster, she apologized solemnly to Natsumi who brushed it off with a cheerful laugh. She reassured Hinata that she was already being a big help and even if she could not teach her now, at least she had something new for herself.
***Break Line***
Hinata felt extremely relieved when she saw Team 7 enter the hall where the first part of the Chuunin Exam were to take place. Ino from Team 10 immediately pounced on Sasuke and started acting lovingly towards him and completely missing the look of extreme annoyance on his face. That sparked an angry reaction from Sakura who told her to get away from him. A small argument broke out between the two and Natsumi walked away from her team with disgust. Sakura had become slightly friendlier to her over time as a team, but it still pissed Natsumi off greatly whenever she saw Ino and Sakura argue over something so stupid. Her mood quickly changed when she spotted Team 8.
"Hey! Finally found you all!" Kiba called out to the group as Team 8 joined in. "So I see that everyone is here."
"Hello..." Hinata, being the shy person that she was, squeaked out a greeting that only her teammates and Natsumi could hear.
"What? So you three made it too? Geez..." Shikamaru grumbled to Team 7.
"I see, so all nine Genin rookies this year are going to take the exam. How far do you think we can get, Sasuke-kun?" Kiba addressed Sasuke in a challenging tone, adding the honorific mockingly.
"You seem to be confident, Kiba," Sasuke replied with an equally challenging smirk.
"We trained like hell. We won't lose to you."
"Shut up," Natsumi butted herself into the conversation, feeling left out ever since a senior Genin named Rock Lee dominated Sasuke in a spar just minutes ago. When Natsumi wanted a try, he refused, albeit politely, claiming that she was even less of a challenge than Sasuke. "Putting Sasuke aside, I won't lose to you."
"Sorry, Natsumi-chan. Kiba-kun didn't mean it that way..." Hinata apologized on her teammate's behalf, pushing her index fingers together as a sign of her nervousness.
"You guys should keep it down a little," someone not of their group spoke up. It was a white-haired young man wearing glasses and a Konoha hitai-ate. He identified them as the Rookie Nine, the Genins who graduated from the Academy that same year. He cautioned them not to make too much of a ruckus and as rookies, they were taking the Chuunin Exam too lightly. Ino asked who he was to be telling them that, and he introduced himself as Yakushi Kabuto. As a sign of goodwill, he shared some information he had gathered on his previous attempts to be promoted to Chuunin, this time being his seventh try. Sasuke took this chance to ask about two individuals that had his interest: Gaara from Sunagakure and Rock Lee from their own village. As Kabuto went through the information he knew about Rock Lee, a person named Hyuuga Neji was mentioned as his teammate. Hinata could not help but flinch and shudder at hearing her relative's name.
"What's wrong, Hinata-chan?" Natsumi saw her involuntary actions and looked at her worriedly. Hinata shook her head to dismiss Natsumi's worries but accepted the offered hand for comfort. As they continued to listen to Kabuto's shared information, it only got more serious the more he explained.
"I'm starting to lose confidence..." Hinata mentioned, feeling intimidated by the atmosphere surrounding the Chuunin Exam.
"It's too late to say things like that!" Ino reprimanded the timid girl.
"It'll be alright! The way you are now, you'll pass this thing no sweat!" Natsumi encouraged Hinata, giving her a confident grin that told her she believed in her.
"Right... Thank you, Natsumi-chan but... will you be okay? Kurenai-sensei said a Chuunin is not all about strength and power..." Hinata grew worried when Natsumi froze and started trembling from held back anxiety. When she saw a smirk grace her lips however, Hinata got worried because she just knew Natsumi would do something silly and attract unnecessary trouble. When she took a deep breath in to shout towards every other Genin participant in the room, Hinata quickly covered her mouth and muffled her shout.
"What are you doing, Hinata-chan? Why did you stop me?" she whined once she pulled her hand away from her mouth.
"You can't do that, Natsumi-chan!" Hinata whispered in a panicked tone. "You can't provoke them! You'll make everyone into your enemy!"
"But they need to know that I'm the best around and beating all of them!"
"You can't! If everyone is your enemy, you'll never become Hokage, Natsumi-chan! No-one wants a Hokage who picks a fight with everybody around her!"
"Really?" Natsumi paled, not wanting to make her dream of being Hokage even further away than it should be. At Hinata's hasty nodding, she obediently mumbled an agreement to her great relief. That relief was quickly gone when they heard Kabuto vomiting due to an attack from the trio from Otogakure. While Hinata was busy calming Natsumi down, they attacked him because they took offense about his information on their village. Fortunately, the arrival of the proctor and his Chuunin assistants brought an end to the conflict, threatening to kick anyone out if they caused any further disturbances. He introduced himself as Morino Ibiki, and the Chuunin Exam was now officially underway.
***Break Line***
'Really?'
That was the thought going through seven of the Rookie Nine's minds. The reason for that was because the remaining two were seated right at the very front, and right next to each other. They would not have paid much attention if it was any other pair, but that pair just happened to be Natsumi and Hinata. Just how lucky could those two girls be?
The first part of the Chuunin Exam was a written test. Despite Hinata helping her with literary matters during their Academy years, this test was way beyond Natsumi's ability to answer any of the nine questions. The last question was to be given near the end of the time limit given. It was a deduction-based test and for each wrong answer, they lost a point out of a maximum of ten. If anyone attempted to cheat and got caught, they lost two points for each time the Chuunin examiners caught them. Ibiki drove home the point that there would be people who would be forced to leave before their paper even got graded. However, if anyone got their points reduced to zero, their respective team would fail as a whole.
That sent Natsumi into a panic. She could feel the death glares of her teammates directed towards her. As far as they were concerned, she was Team 7's weakest link in terms of academic intelligence. She was actually not that stupid like they believed as Hinata had tutored her and she had gotten a good passing grade on the Academy's written test for the Genin graduation. Her status as the 'dead-last' was just because her other grades could not support her failing grade of the Jutsu portion of the exam. Despite the tough situation, she kept her head held high and confidently stared down her test paper.
'When doing a written test, I have to stay calm and focus on the questions. Find the ones that look easy, and then try my best on them,' Natsumi mentally ran through the list of tips Hinata had given her to help her cope with written tests. But when she looked through the test paper again, none of them were easy. She did not even have a clue what they were asking about! Thinking about the rules more clearly, the only other option she had was to cheat without getting caught five times. A glance from Ibiki to her general direction sent her into a panic and she quickly erased that thought. It was way too risky! She did not know if being caught by five examiners on one instance of cheating counted as five strikes. Even after thirty minutes had passed, Natsumi was still stuck on whether she should cheat or not. She knew she had to get at least one question right. She had to cheat to keep at least one point but the fear of failing immediately when she tried was just too strong.
"Natsumi-chan, relax. I'll help you," Hinata whispered just loud enough for her to hear. Natsumi glanced over to take a small peak and her eyes widened when she saw eight questions had already been answered. Wow, Hinata was smart! She did not remember her activating her Byakugan to cheat at all. It was most likely she answered them with her own knowledge. "I'll show you my test."
"Is it okay with you, Hinata-chan? We both might be penalized for cheating! Both our teams could fail!" Natsumi was feeling too pressured to just accept her goodwill for what it was.
"It'll be alright. At the very least, copy just one down. We might get caught, but you should be done before we get caught five times," she reassured her, pushing half her paper towards Natsumi but she still had to lean over a little to see clearly. "I don't want your dream to disappear here, Natsumi-chan. I will do whatever it takes to help you achieve your dream."
"Thank you, Hinata-chan...!" Natsumi sniffed back premature tears of gratitude and shuffled over to the edge of her chair to take a peek. The moment she did, however, a kunai whizzed right behind her head, making her lose her balance. Natsumi yelped as she swung her arms wildly to try and regain balance but her chair tipped sideways and she fell straight towards Hinata.
"Natsumi-chan?" Hinata exclaimed in surprise when she suddenly saw Natsumi looming over her and just about to land on her. Fortunately, Hinata was not knocked off her chair when she fell. She had broken Natsumi's fall despite being caught unprepared. Unfortunately...
It was dead silence for nearly thirty seconds as all eyes were turned towards the two best friends. If an outsider had entered the room during that time, they would have seen some boys and men drooling with foolish looks on their faces, some girls and women blushing heavily or hiding their red faces with their hands, wide shocked eyes from majority of the room's occupants, disturbed looks from a smaller minority of people and only Ibiki having a look of indifference on his face. The sound of a pencil being dropped by one of the examiners broke the silence. Suddenly, loud booty calls, admiring whistles and embarrassed screams erupted everywhere. The reason for this momentary outburst?
When Natsumi fell on Hinata, the latter was only just beginning to react to the former falling towards her. She was far too late in trying to catch her although her arms still went around her body. The end result?
Although caused purely by accident, it looked like Hinata had grabbed Natsumi off her seat for a tight hug and a deep kiss. The two best friends were so shocked they apparently forgot their lips were still touching as they stared directly into each other's eyes for several long seconds.
"All of you shut up and sit down! You two brats! Stop locking your lips and get back to doing the test!" Ibiki barked, restoring order immediately and leveling the entire room with a menacing look in his eyes, even towards his own Chuunin examiners. They hastily uttered out an apology and got back to checking for any careless cheating and dismissing those that hit the quota for failure.
The two best friends regained awareness before hastily separating when they heard his order. Natsumi could swear steam was exiting from Hinata's ears as she turned as red as a lobster. She could feel her own blush getting stronger and hotter as she awkwardly righted her chair and sat down in her original position.
"I don't care if you two plan on continuing somewhere private later but now this is my time! Pull that nonsense again and your teams fail on the spot!" Ibiki threatened.
"Y-Yes s-sir!" Natsumi stammered an acknowledgement, utterly intimidated by the proctor. Hinata, on the other hand, had only heard the first sentence. It may have sailed right over Natsumi's head, but Hinata was well aware of the hidden meaning. A small groan left her lips as everything went black for her as she fell off her chair. "Hinata-chan!" Natsumi cried out for her friend. Her face was so red and her eyes had somehow turned into comical swirls as she fainted from sheer embarrassment. "HEY! What did you do to her, you creep!" she snapped at Ibiki.
"...Take her to the infirmary a few doors down the hall. Pray that you two get back here before I give out the final question," Ibiki refrained from shaking his head. Whether it was amusement at the ridiculous situation or exasperation, he did not care. He watched as she exited the room, calling out to the unconscious girl all the while.
***Break Line***
At the Academy staff room where Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma were lounging around and waiting for the results of their team's respective success or failure, they heard chatter from the Chuunin examiners talking to each other rather excitedly outside.
"I can't believe something like that actually happened," one of them said. That naturally got the attention of the three Jounins.
"Yeah. It's totally unexpected, but it was a great sight to behold," his partner agreed, sounding almost proud he saw whatever it was they saw.
"Who were they again?"
"Uzumaki Natsumi and Hyuuga Hinata."
"Oh? This sounds interesting," Asuma chuckled as Kakashi and Kurenai's interest in the conversation rose.
"If the Hyuuga clan ever heard of this, a great scandal will occur and tarnish their name. I almost feel sorry for the two girls if it got out. Luckily for them, Ibiki-san told us what happened in there remained in there. No-one can speak of this."
"As long as we leave out names and obvious clues, we're free to speak of this publicly, right?"
"I guess so..."
"They're still young, but it was kinda... exciting."
"A slight shame their bodies aren't matured or I might actually get turned on by that kiss."
"Two girls kissing in public. Don't see that very often."
Kurenai's face lit up with embarrassment when she heard that. Kakashi only let out an amused sound but she swore she heard a perverted giggle just before that. Asuma had a look of disbelief on his face at the news.
"Natsumi is the Number One Unpredictable Ninja for a reason, you know?" Kakashi joked.
"This isn't funny, Kakashi! Don't you know how much trouble they will be in, especially Hinata?" Kurenai exclaimed.
"Now, now. You know Hinata isn't the type of person to do that kind of thing in public. Natsumi is the one always hugging Hinata when she feels happy, and I doubt kissing comes to her mind. Perhaps in the future, though..." Kakashi giggled out loud this time.
"Kakashi!" she screamed, thoroughly appalled and feeling scandalized for her student.
"Calm down, Kurenai. Kakashi is just fooling around with you," Asuma tried to ease her tension. When Kakashi suddenly dropped his joking mood and turned solemn, they tensed up.
"But in all seriousness, it's actually a lot safer for Natsumi if she were to like girls instead of boys," he mentioned with melancholy, as though remembering a terrible memory.
"...Was she abused by boys, or men, in her younger years?" Asuma asked, apparently sharing the same thought with Kurenai judging by the look of horror dawning on her face.
"No, no, nothing drastic like that," Kakashi dismissed their horrifying thoughts away with a wave of his hand. "It has more to do with what she carries in her that makes it dangerous for her to get into a proper relationship with boys." A pointed look to them with his exposed eye made them realize what he was referring to. All Jounins knew what Natsumi carried in her but Kakashi was the one that knew the most about how it affected his student.
"Yo, Kakashi-sensei!" Natsumi's voice was loud and clear as the door opened to reveal the Rookie Nine with various degrees of pride on their faces.
"Hey, guys. Congratulations on passing, all of you," Kakashi greeted them with his eye-smile. "What brings you here?" They told their Jounin instructors about how they were told to ask them about the location of the second part of the Chuunin Exam. After giving them the needed information, Kakashi told Natsumi and Hinata to stay behind. Curious at the order but obeying nonetheless, the two girls waited for Kakashi to speak.
"Uh... Kakashi-sensei? What is it?" Natsumi asked when Kakashi only kept his eye-smile up.
"Kakashi?" Asuma got curious at his colleague's silence. Kurenai narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion.
"How was it?" Kakashi finally asked.
"How was what?" Natsumi quirked an eyebrow.
"The kiss you shared with Hinata." Both girls' faces exploded into redness when they heard him. "How was it?" Natsumi descended into nonsensical stammering while Hinata hid herself behind Natsumi and was barely peeking over her friend's shoulder.
"Kakashi, don't ask about that kind of thing!" Kurenai tried to rescue the two girls who were gradually breaking down from embarrassment.
"Sensei's orders," he expertly ignored her and blatantly pulled rank to force an answer out of the Genins. "How did it feel sharing your first kisses with each other?"
"...It felt..." Natsumi took a deep breath in an attempt to relax but Hinata's death grip on her tracksuit was not helping, instead making her more nervous.
"Yes?" Kakashi prompted.
"It felt... good," she finally answered, her face just as red as Hinata's.
"How did Hinata's lips feel like?"
"Soft... and smooth..."
That was the limit of Hinata's threshold of embarrassment as she once again fainted at Natsumi's forced response. It was embarrassing enough as it was to be reminded of their accidental first kiss, but to know that she had the exact same feelings as her was just too much! When she recalled the memory, it had sparked a strange feeling in her and the only word she had for it was just... good. It felt good. When she had recovered from the shock of their kiss, the feeling of Natsumi's lips on her own registered in her brain. And just like she was forced to admit, Natsumi's lips did feel soft and smooth. Despite fainting, her death grip still remained. As she fell to the floor in a heap, she pulled Natsumi down and almost cracked the back of her skull with how hard her head smashed into the floor, rendering the blonde unconscious as well.
"Kakashi! Just look at what you've done!" Kurenai screamed at him before carrying the two girls away, and hopefully away from more embarrassment when they woke up.
***End of Chapter***
Differences
Naruto's declaration of challenge before the Chuunin Exam starts.
Canon: Naruto declares he will not lose to any other Genin participants.
My version: Hinata realizes Natsumi is going to do something silly and stops her from making the declaration of challenge. She explains that provoking everyone there and making them her enemies is not something a Hokage would do.
Hinata offering her aid to Naruto to help him pass.
Canon: Naruto questions Hinata's motives for letting him cheat before eventually accepting. When someone behind him fails due to being caught cheating, a kunai is thrown and whizzes just right in front of his face. Thoroughly frightened, he makes an excuse and refuses her help.
My version: Being best friends, Natsumi doesn't question Hinata but hesitates because she fears both of them will fail. When Hinata reassures her that it's safe to copy at least one answer, she does so. Because she doesn't take as long to accept Hinata's aid, the kunai that was thrown to mark the person behind her whizzes behind her head instead of in front of her face. That causes a certain incident to happen. At the end of that, she doesn't get to copy from Hinata anyway, but not because she refused.
The kiss.
Canon: Naruto kisses Sasuke much, much earlier, during the time when they were being divided into teams. The result of that causes Naruto to get beat up by all his female classmates except for Hinata for his transgression of 'stealing' Sasuke's first kiss when it was purely accidental due to someone bumping Naruto into Sasuke.
My version: Natsumi kisses Hinata during the first part of the Chuunin Exam due to losing her balance from the surprise of the kunai whizzing just barely past the back of her head. No violence occurs because of Ibiki's rules but disarray does happen. After a comment from Ibiki, Hinata faints and Natsumi has to care for her.
Extra Scene: Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma overhear two Chuunins talking about Natsumi's and Hinata's accident. Kakashi makes some light banter about it before making a sudden serious comment concerning Natsumi. The Rookie Nine then gets the details of where the second part of the Chuunin Exam. Natsumi and Hinata are told to stay behind and get teased by Kakashi because he heard about their accident.
***Break Line***
Here we are in the Chuunin Exam Arc! This is just the first part of the Chuunin Exam, so things are just going to build up from here on! I'm not writing about the second part of the exam in the Forest Of Death. In my opinion, the Forest Of Death is more focused on character development for Sakura and Sasuke. So the next chapter will jump straight to the elimination matches where the action will be.
I look forward to getting more readers who like this story! Do Follow/Favorite/Review this story, and big thanks to those who are kind enough to do so!